Pete Carroll, John Schneider careful in their words about Bobby Wagner’s Seahawks contract
Russell Wilson isn’t the only Seahawks franchise cornerstone whose future is a topic at the NFL combine.
General manager John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll each got asked Wednesday at the league scouting extravaganza in Indiana about Bobby Wagner.
The issue at hand with Wagner: the All-Pro linebacker turns 32 this summer. He is entering the final year of his three-year, $54 million contract. Schneider and his contract executive Matt Thomas intentionally back-loaded Wagner’s deal to have its highest salary-cap charge to the team in the last year, 2022. That cost is scheduled to be $20.35 million, second only to Wilson’s $37 million.
“We learn a lot this week when we meet with everybody’s agents. We’ll come around next week and kind of reset like, and recalibrate — what does that look like?” Schneider said in the hallway of the JW Marriott hotel on his way to another in a series of league meetings at the combine into this weekend.
“We will do that then, at that point. Now there’s been...obviously, you have to evaluate every position--and he’s an amazing player.”
Wagner’s $20 million cap charge hinders what Schneider and Carroll hope to do with the many free agents with expired contracts Seattle has ready to enter the market when it opens March 16. That is, offer attractive-enough deals to re-sign Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs, cornerback D.J. Reed, running back Rashaad Penny, left tackle Duane Brown and perhaps right tackle Brandon Shell and center Ethan Pocic, among others, to keep them from leaving this month.
“We are going to try to keep all of our players,” Schneider said. “That’s why we are having all these meetings with all these agents, right? Yeah, we want your guy back. But, but, how’s it going to work out?
“Then you just go day by day.”
Carroll said: “It’s a big challenge...The next two weeks are huge” to retain the above free agents.
Wagner represented himself, without an agent, in negotiations on his current contract. That was in the summer of 2019.
Carroll said hours earlier Wednesday inside the Indiana Convention Center he expects Wagner to be back for his 11th season leading Seattle’s defense this year.
“We love playing with Bobby. He’s been a great player, another great season,” Carroll said.
“You know, at this time of year, there’s a lot of guys that are in the position where we got to figure out where everybody fits together. And Bobby’s been such a steady part of it.
“We’d love to be able to play with him, so we’ll work towards that. If we can do that, we’ll do it.”
Wagner said at the end of 2021 he knew there would be changes on the 2022 Seahawks. That made him wonder about his future in Seattle. It’s the only NFL team’s he’s known, the one that drafted him in the second round in 2012. That was one round ahead of Wilson, and one year before they both won the Seahawks’ only Super Bowl championship.
The Seahawks could save $16.6 million against the 2022 salary cap if they released Wagner before June 1 — though that of course would mean they won’t have Bobby Wagner in the middle of their defense anymore.
More likely, the Seahawks will ask him to restructure his 2022 salary to a more team-friendly cap charge. They can do that by adding void years and giving Wagner more guaranteed cash up front with void years to spread the cap charges out of this year across 2023 and ‘24. That’s when the salary cap is likely to spike from just over $200 million per team this year to above $250 million because the league’s new media rights kick in next year.
The team did void years and more up-front money with Diggs and Brown, among others, last year.
“It’s worked out last year. It worked out for us (for 2021, when the salary cap with $182.5 million per team),” Schneider said.
The Seahawks could also present Wagner with a contract extension that would keep him in the middle of their defense past 2022, and on the road to retiring with the team as he’s stated he’d like to do. Seattle has no heirs ready to replace Wagner. Ben Burr-Kirven, a former University of Washington middle linebacker, has been a special-teams player for years and is coming off season-ending knee surgery. Cody Barton has also been primarily a special-teams player. Last season after Wagner got injured in the final weeks, Barton played his first regular-season snaps at middle linebacker.
Jordyn Brooks was an inside linebacker his final year at Texas Tech before the Seahawks drafted him in the first round in 2020. He is coming off a 2021 season in which he set the franchise record for tackles as departed K.J. Wright’s replacement at weakside linebacker. It’s unlikely the Seahawks are ready now to move Brooks out of the position in which he flourished last season.
Given all the losing this past season and his high cost next year, Wagner was asked Dec. 29: Do you wonder at all whether next season you will be playing for the Seahawks?
“You think about it. You think about what the next year looks like and just, period, what the future holds,” Wagner said, “because this was a season I don’t think we all planned for. We didn’t plan for the season to go this way, so, obviously, there’s going to be some changes.
“Whether or not I’m a part of those changes, I don’t know.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 3:33 PM.
